Chu Yu, who makes her way down to the garden in Qinxi Valley, talks down to Cao Yan and Young Master Sun, not one bit afraid of taking back despite their statuses. Unlike Gu Chusheng and Wang Linlang, who bit their tongues as Cao Yan insinuated things about the way Gu Chusheng climbed to his position.
Cao Yan continued to provoke Chu Yu. When he accused her of coming to Qinxi Valley to fish for another rich groom, Chu Yu did nothing. But any disrespect to her father, she won’t stand for. Wang Linlang’s move to stop Cao Yan from continuing his mocking had Cao Yan deliberately referring to Chu Yu’s father as “the defeated Chu Jianchang” and seemingly implying that there’s no need to worry about causing offence because Chu Jianchang is no longer alive and can’t “crawl out of his coffin and defend [Chu Yu]”.
This gets Chu Yu lifting her whip, so angry she wants to whip Cao Yan, but Gu Chusheng had seemingly managed to get Chu Yu to hold back. Whether Chu Yu was going to completely refrain from whipping Cao Yan remains to be seen as someone else out of frame gets Cao Yan for her.
That someone is Wei Yun. Cao Yan gets some small stones flicked at his forehead over and over again until his skin breaks and a trickle of blood begins flowing down it. Wei Yun may be suspicious of Chu Yu, they may not get along at the moment, and the Chu family may have fallen, but he clearly thinks that speaking about General Chu Jianchang in such a way deserves to be hit.
Cao Yan won’t back down. He accuses them of conspiring together and plotting against an imperial official.
This sets off Chu Yu and her whip, sending Cao Yan diving for cover. In doing so, he knocks Wang Linlang off balance and into the path of Chu Yu’s whip. Gu Chusheng rushes over to protect his wife, taking the hit. Shocked, Chu Yu retracts with power. In doing so, the whip catches the cloth hung overhead and drapes over her and the person next to her, Wei Yun (and this, sets up the fated pairing in the drama).
A brief moment of awkwardness is shared between them, their arms flailing about a bit in an attempt to gather the cloth and get out of the confined space they unexpectedly got themselves in.
Cao Yan promises to make them pay. This only gets Wei Yun to pick up a rock the size of his hand, letting the Minister of Judicial Review know his threats don’t scare him or anyone. This comes after Wei Jun had stood in front of them all, reminding Cao Yan that they may be soldiers, but it’s soldiers who protect the people of Great Sui and keep peace. As for the Chu family, he tells Cao Yan not to slander the Chu family, as they are praiseworthy.
Wei Jun even seemed to approve of Wei Yun’s idea of throwing the big rock at Cao Yan when everyone finally dispersed. Wei Yun was so worried Wei Jun was going to scold him for having the rock in his hand, he immediately let go of it when his brother caught sight of it and told him he was only trying to scare him. Wei Jun’s reaction was to help Wei Yun clean away the dirt on his hands, telling him he got his hands dirty. In other words, he wasn’t concerned about what he was going to do with the rock. Wei Jun was only worried about the dirt the rock left on Wei Yun’s hand. Wei Jun even gave him a pat on the shoulder, as if saying, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to scold you. Good job.” Haha.
Wei Yun becomes a bit of a third wheel when Chu Yu suggests taking a walk together with Wei Jun. It’s to continue the conversation they had the night before about looking into who at the Arsenal Bureau was the traitor, but it comes off as a couple wanting to spend a bit of time together.
Wei Yun eventually takes the hint and gestures to his guard, Wei Qiu, to leave them. Meanwhile, Wanyue is given a subtle gaze to go about her task, which is to find out the location of the Arsenal Bureau. Wei Yun’s too swift for her, it seems. While Wei Qiu was too crafty. They were fully aware of Wanyue following them and had her lose track of them. She can only report back that the Arsenal Bureau is “up a ridge”.
Chu Linyang looks to have got his guard, Chushan (Yuan Ruohang), following Wei Jun and Wei Yun on a daily basis to learn the exact location of the Arsenal Bureau, too. He’s sure that now Chu Yu’s told Wei Jun about the octagonal crossbow and it landing in North Qi’s hands, all their movements will lead them to the true location of the Arsenal Bureau.
Alone with Wei Jun, Chu Yu had hoped Wei Jun would agree to her investigating the matter with him, but Wei Jun worries about the Chu family being suspected of deceiving the Emperor while the Wei family will be suspected of treason. He promises her he will thoroughly investigate it and explain everything to her clearly, which Chu Yu has no choice but to settle for.
She had plans to follow to learn the location of the Arsenal Bureau after their meeting, but this was thwarted by Wei Yun when he used a rabbit he found nearby to try and find out what they were secretly discussing. The brothers then left together after their meeting.
At the end of the third meeting, Chu Yu only obtained a clue that the Arsenal Bureau is up the ridge from Wanyue’s attempt to follow Wei Yun earlier. It’s not the exact location, but Chu Yu thinks it’s a clue she can use to scout the Arsenal’s location herself the next day. Although it appeared as if she was going to force her way in and look into things herself, her meeting with Wei Jun saw her give him the crossbow trigger her brother, Chu Linyang (Cao Jun), brought back at great risk from the battle at Fengling. She’s decided to trust Wei Jun with this evidence to investigate it.
Just as this evidence is handed over to Wei Jun, a report that he needs to head off to war along with Wei Yun, Wei Yun’s other brothers, Wei Yun’s father, and the Wei Army. They must mobilise and defend the northern border from North Qi.
Wei Jun’s first thought after the report was to let Chu Yu know the situation, worried Chu Yu might misunderstand that he was attempting to hinder her from getting into the Arsenal Bureau. But with her out of the house when he visited, he left her a letter. In it, he explains that the Arsenal Bureau is the empire’s critical stronghold and that there are only two ways to get into it—a royal decree or an official post or a token of authority. This token of authority is a fish-shaped tally that’s with Wei Jun.
It seems that access to information requires the Commander of the Arsenal Bureau as well. Wei Yun was turned away by the Deputy Commander when he was asked by Wei Jun to go on his behalf to get personnel files. Wei Yun was told that if Wei Jun wanted the personnel files then Wei Jun needed to get them himself or he (as in the Deputy Commander) could go to Wei Jun about the matter.
The strict access to information seems to suggest two things: information can’t be given to just anyone, and secondly, only people within the Arsenal Bureau could attempt to access information.
Chu Yu is left with no choice but to shout to Wei Jun that she’ll wait for him to return. She barely manages to catch up to him just as he and the Wei army set off.
We really like the shots in this scene. We see Chu Yu standing above the gate shouting to Wei Jun that she’ll wait for him. Wei Jun acknowledges Chu Yu, but we don’t see a front-view shot of Wei Jun when he turns to look back at Chu Yu. We only see a side-view of Wei Jun. The person we see a front-view shot of is Wei Yun looking back. It’s as if the scene is telling us that Wei Yun will be the only one returning, that Wei Jun and Chu Yu aren’t meant to be. It’s Wei Yun and Chu Yu. The scene says so much, and it’s so sad. Adding to the sadness is Wei Yun’s happy and carefree smile that we see when he turns back. The next time he returns, it’s without his father and all his brothers alive.
A month spent defending the city: reports from the front estimate that North Qi have retreated to Baidi Valley with fewer than 20,000 North Qi troops. Because of this, the leader of the campaign, Crown Prince Li Huan (Li Qing), made the decision to chase down North Qi and go after victory, seemingly based on the belief his side had more men.
Wei Yun was strongly against it, believing they should plan tactics before pursuit, and had gone to Wei Jun to advise this. His concern was that Baidi Valley was a depression. Even with numbers on their side, the battle was going to be fierce. Wei Jun didn’t seem to disagree, but it was a military order, and they had to go.
The battle begins outside Baidi Valley. This clash sees a number of North Qi soldiers taken down. North Qi General Su Cha calls retreat.
The Wei Army is led to Baidi Valley. It’s foggy, has low visibility, and is dead silent. There was not a single North Qi soldier in sight. General Wei Zhong (Xiu Qing) orders his men to halt, now very aware of the mountains which now surround them.
A barrage of arrows flies at them from overhead, some of which explode, taking out many Wei soldiers. This was the concern Wei Yun had. With them at the bottom of the valley and the enemy attacking from overhead, they could only do their best to defend and take cover as countless arrows continued to fly at them. They had nowhere to run.
Wei Jun sees now that the intelligence they got was wrong. From his observations, there are far more than 20,000 enemy troops. Wei Zhong, who took cover not far from Wei Jun, voices his own thoughts: he suspects a spy was within their camp feeding the false reports. (History was repeating itself again.)
When the enemy troops finally descend onto the valley, Wei Zhong, Wei Jun and all of Wei Yun’s brothers bravely charge at the North Qi soldiers. Spears of the Wei and curved blades of North Qi clash.
They hold off for a time, but the appearance of the octagonal crossbow takes down the first of Wei Yun’s brothers, Second Brother Wei Shu (Wang Sen).
Off in the distance and preoccupied with fighting off multiple enemy soldiers, Wei Zhong stood unaware a row of arrows was about to hit him. Wei Shu, who had caught the North Qi soldiers aiming their weapons, could only run in front of the arrows to save his father.
A chorus of shouts echoes through the battlefield as Wei Zhong, Wei Jun, and the other younger brothers catch sight of Wei Shu taking over half a dozen arrows to the back. Wei Zhong’s survival was only momentary. While Wei Zhong and his sons were all distracted, a group of North Qi soldiers went for him again, thrusting multiple spears into his back.
This ambush at Baidi Valley. We’ve watched this scene maybe three times now, and it’s still not any easier getting through it. Seeing Wei Shu and then Wei Zhong go down, we know it was coming. It’s how the story goes. The drama summary indicated this would happen to the Wei family before we started the drama.
But still. As good and dramatic as these scenes are, it’s so hard to watch the members of the Wei family go down one by one. We’re already starting to feel for Wei Yun, who—according to him—drew the short-stick and is at the Wei encampment sitting idly on a hay stack, muttering about his bad luck for drawing the rear-guard post instead of being on the frontline with his father and brothers. He’s yet to learn that he’s lost his father and second brother, and things aren’t looking good for the Wei army.
