In contrast to her good mood, dark clouds loomed over the Quzhao camp.
Qu Fei slammed his hand on the table. Who exactly has the audacity to kill our men and steal our rations?
The military rations expected to arrive today had never shown up. Qu Bai had sent men to investigate, only to discover that the escorting soldiers had been killed and the grain had vanished without a trace, evidently robbed.
Following the tracks, they found that the wheel ruts had been deliberately covered up after entering a small mountain path.
However, ha, the enemy's methods were not particularly clever, and they still left behind quite a few traces.
Come to think of it, the tracks left by over eighty carts of grain were not so easily erased.
Qu Cong's face was gloomy as he asked, Have you found them? Which direction did they go?
Qu Bai sighed. Not yet. I have already sent men to pursue them along the tracks. We just have to wait for news.
After saying this, he lowered his eyes in deep thought. It was a long time before he asked, I remember there seemed to be a few groups of mountain bandits in Gefeng County before?
Qu Fei was confused. Does the General suspect the bandits did this?
Impossible. He immediately denied his own theory. There are no bandits that formidable in the Gefeng area. If there were, we would definitely know about them.
Qu Cong furrowed his brows. It seems we haven't heard any news about the bandits in Gefeng for a long time.
Qu Bai's eyes flickered, and he sighed. I am afraid they have all been either wiped out or recruited by Gefeng.
Qu Cong's expression turned solemn. Does the General suspect Gefeng is behind this?
Before Qu Bai could speak, Qu Fei voiced his disagreement. How is that possible? We have Gefeng City surrounded so tightly that not even a fly could escape. Where could they have possibly come out from?
Qu Bai pondered for a moment before saying, It truly couldn't be Gefeng. But if it isn't Gefeng and it isn't the mountain bandits, then which faction did this?
Silence fell over the tent. The counties and prefectures around Gefeng had all been occupied by their Quzhao forces, and they hadn't discovered any other factions for a long time.
Qu Bai's eyes were dark and deep. Ever since Gefeng had been taken by the Jinyang Army, everything had become bizarre and uncontrollable.
Could this faction be related to the Jinyang Army?
On a hillside in Donghu Prefecture, the terrain was elevated and the mountain air was much colder. Some of the hollows still held unmelted white snow.
One or two hundred thinly clad men and women stood in front of a mountain cave.
They were hunched over from the cold, almost all of them carrying their worldly possessions, big and small, on their backs. Their gazes were fixed on a certain direction down the mountain.
That was their former home.
Last winter had been extraordinarily cold, and many of their people had frozen to death.
Even more tragically, in January, heavy snow had fallen for half a month straight, directly crushing their houses under its weight.
Some were instantly crushed to death by the collapsing roofs. Others survived the collapse but, unable to receive timely rescue, froze to death alive in the snowy night.
These people were the lucky ones. They had heard the commotion on that snowy night and ran out, surviving the disaster, but that night had become their nightmare.
No one came to save them. Amidst the drifting snowflakes, without any tools, everyone frantically dug through the collapsed houses and snowdrifts taller than a person with their bare hands.
But it was all in vain. Even when their hands were bruised, bloody, and frozen so numb they could no longer feel pain, they still couldn't dig out the people buried inside.
They couldn't save their families trapped under the ruins. Whether their loved ones were still alive or had died instantly, they could only watch helplessly.
There were even many cases where entire families were buried!
It wasn't until dawn that, led by the Village Chief, they arrived at this mountain cave and made it their temporary home.
Snapping out of his memories, the Village Chief sighed. Let's go. Down the mountain.
The man standing beside him choked back a sob. Where can we go?
No matter where we go, we only have a chance to live if we leave. The Village Chief, his body hunched, took the lead in walking down the mountain.
After the heavy snow stopped, they had returned to the village to search for food and supplies.
However, almost everyone's house in the village had collapsed, and there wasn't much they could dig out.
To survive, the entire village united. The things they found were uniformly distributed by the Village Chief, which was how they managed to endure the winter.
Let's go. We've eaten all the seed grain. Even if we rebuild our houses, we can't farm the land. We won't survive.
An old woman sighed, her voice laced with sorrow and helplessness.
Throughout the entire winter, the world had been covered in white snow. They couldn't find any food at all and could only scavenge for edibles in the ruined houses, which included their seed grain.
In the Verdant Forest, tall trees were sprouting green buds. The sparse patches of green, accompanied by small amounts of unmelted white snow, made the area look both vibrant and mysteriously dangerous.
A unit of several hundred Quzhao soldiers was slowly creeping into the forest, following the wheel tracks.
I wonder who it is that actually killed so many of our men, a tall soldier walking near the front muttered in a low voice.
A fierce glint flashed in the captain's eyes. I don't care who they are. If they dare to kill our men, they had better be prepared to die.
The tall soldier smiled maliciously. That's right. These Han thieves deserve death.
This should be deep in the mountains now. These people wouldn't be living deep in the mountains, would they? he asked curiously, looking at their surroundings.
The captain didn't reply, looking around vigilantly. Everyone, be careful.
Watching the Quzhao soldiers cautiously creep into the ambush ring, Yao Ji's face remained calm. He was responsible for closing the net today. There was no rush; these people would have to come out eventually.
The dense forest was dead silent, with only the occasional sound of the wind rustling the leaves.
The Quzhao soldiers slowed their pace, feeling that the quietness here was somewhat eerie.
Suddenly, a figure seemed to flash past their eyes.
Who goes there! the captain shouted, running after the figure.
All the other soldiers followed closely behind him.
Swish, swish, swish...
A hundred arrows were fired.
Screams echoed through the dense forest.
An arrow was lodged in the captain's neck. His eyes were filled with horror as he looked at a woman in the distance who was staring at him coldly.
Enemy attack! The shouts of his soldiers rang in his ears, but unfortunately, the sound felt very distant and ethereal to him.
Thud. His corpse collapsed, and blood stained the earth red.
Jiang Jin held a Dragon Feather Crossbow in her hands. Watching the fleeing Quzhao soldiers, she fired at one of them.
Pfft.
The arrow struck the soldier in the back and pierced straight through his chest.
Driven by momentum, the soldier ran two more steps forward before crashing heavily to the ground.
In the first round of the hunt, nearly two hundred Quzhao soldiers were killed.
Jiang Jin waved her hand.
The Dragon Shadow Guards formed an encircling formation and charged in the direction the Quzhao soldiers were fleeing. They continuously fired their crossbows, reaping the lives of the Quzhao soldiers.
The dense forest was full of trees and thick bushes. The Quzhao soldiers reacted quickly. Although they had lost their captain's command, they instinctively and rapidly sought cover.
The corners of Jiang Jin's mouth curled up, and she raised her hand to make a gesture.
The Dragon Shadow Guards immediately scattered in groups of three and squads as units, fanning out to hunt down their targets.
The tall soldier hid behind a large tree, panting heavily as he tried his best to calm his heaving chest.
It was too brutal. He had watched helplessly as the captain walking in front of him was shot down, and he had clearly seen that the ones attacking them were the Jinyang Army!
He recognized the repeating crossbows in their hands, and his mind was in chaos.
He couldn't understand how the Jinyang Army had managed to get out of Gefeng, which was surrounded as tightly as an iron barrel.
However, these were not questions a mere foot soldier like him needed to ponder. What he needed to do now was escape from this place and deliver the news back to the general as quickly as possible.
Gripping the blade tightly in his hand, he steadied his breathing and scanned his surroundings for an escape route.
A faint sound seemed to echo from behind him.
His heart leaped into his throat. Reacting faster than his mind could process, he slashed out with his weapon.
But his blade met only empty air.
Carried by the momentum of his missed strike, he stumbled forward a couple of steps, leaving himself completely exposed.
Thwack.
An arrow pierced the right side of his neck and tore out through the left.
