Traveling through an ancient military camp: Bao'er's survival song

Luo Binghe's first thought was naturally to escape to the Crown Prince's Eastern Palace, and that's exactly what he did.

As he ran and jumped into the gate of the East Palace, preparing to shout "Close the palace gates, there's an assassin!", he was suddenly tackled into the bushes. Immediately afterwards, the person covered his mouth with one hand and tightly gripped his neck with the other.

In his desperate struggle, he heard someone dismiss the Imperial Guards who had come to investigate after hearing the noise. In his despair, Luo Binghe unleashed tremendous strength, breaking off one of the fingers that was choking him. Taking advantage of the other man's silence and pain, he ran away quickly.

Even at the gates of the East Palace, he still encountered assassins. Luo Binghe was terrified by the force pursuing him. Who was it? Who had the audacity and ability to assassinate someone within the palace? Was it Consort Chen? Or Wu Peng'en? With neither the Emperor nor the Crown Prince in the palace, Luo Binghe dared not trust anyone else in the palace. He could only think of a way to escape and return to the General's Mansion first.

Although General Luo and his family are no longer here, the General's Mansion in Luo Binghe's heart remains a place of strict security and a disciplined family tradition.

Luo Binghe hadn't returned to the General's Mansion for half a year. Although he had shown remarkable agility and intelligence far beyond his peers since childhood, he was still just a ten-year-old child. On his way home, little Luo Binghe thought of his mother's soft embrace and felt extremely aggrieved. He tried his best to hold back his tears and encouraged himself: It's okay, I'll be fine when I get home. When I get home, my grandmother and mother will protect me.

The General's Mansion was quite a distance from the Imperial Palace. In addition, there was the time it took Luo Binghe to escape from the Imperial Palace and the time he spent hiding along the way. By the time he finally ran back to the General's Mansion on his bound feet, it was already midnight.

The general's mansion was closed and silent, the only sound being the burning of flames inside.

Luo Binghe lay prone in the nearby grass, biting his hand hard to stop himself from making a sound, only tears silently streaming down his face.

Flames soared into the sky, yet no one inside the house uttered a sound of pain.

Luo Binghe knew that it was too late for him to do anything now.

From now on, he will be a child without a mother.

It's his fault! It must be his fault!

Before the neighbors who were fighting the fire and the government's fire brigade arrived to extinguish it, Luo Binghe heard the language of foreigners. Another person, speaking broken Mandarin, asked, "Teacher, without the protection of the General's Mansion, that child can't escape. Should we wait here?" The Mandarin, barely audible, appeared and disappeared with the wind. The person answering spoke very softly, and Luo Binghe couldn't discern the tone or the content, but as the trees along the roadside swayed and then returned to stillness, Luo Binghe knew that these people had definitely left.

Who was so audacious as to collude with foreign tribes and wipe out the entire Luo family!

Who was so heartless as to burn down the General's Mansion, which was now only inhabited by the elderly, women, and children?

Luo Binghe thought of that broken Chinese word "teacher," and his heart was filled with boundless hatred: Teacher! Teacher! Teacher! It must be that scoundrel Wu Peng'en! It must be that scoundrel Wu Peng'en who wiped out his entire Luo family for his own selfish desires!

After the fire brigade extinguished the raging fire, Luo Binghe kowtowed three times to the General's Mansion from the bushes, and ran away before dawn.

Luo Binghe ran towards the residence of General Peng Yi, a close friend of his father.

It wasn't that he didn't trust the Emperor and the Crown Prince, but given his status as a ten-year-old child and his unsubstantiated claims, whether it was the affair between Consort Chen and Wu Peng'en or Wu Peng'en's collusion with foreign tribes to exterminate his entire Luo family, it all seemed like the baseless accusations of a grieving orphan. Moreover, his failure to seek justice would only expose him to the adulterous couple.

News of the massacre at the General's Mansion reached General Peng Yi even faster than Luo Binghe. The coroner concluded that there was no soot in the mouths, noses, or throats of anyone in the General's Mansion, indicating that they had been silently poisoned before the fire started.

Exhausted from fleeing, Luo Binghe met General Peng in tattered clothes and cracked lips. The once dashing and proud young master had become a refugee and beggar. He only told Uncle Peng Yi the fact that he was being hunted down, but did not reveal any other details. He said that he would go into hiding and rely on real military achievements to rebuild the General's Mansion.

Because ten-year-old Luo Binghe, during his escape filled with hatred, realized a truth: without absolute strength or solid evidence, any attempt to seek justice would be like throwing an egg against a rock.

Luo Binghe thus became Peng Zizheng, the adopted son of General Peng Yi of Ningyuan.