Yun Yu looked around at the group, his heart bitter. These were all soldiers who had once fought fiercely, the oldest barely in their twenties, yet now they were like decrepit old men, having lost all the vigor of youth.
He patted Yun Ye on the shoulder, ignoring the half-amputated, ugly wound where his arm used to be, and cruelly laid out the reality for them.
"I want to tell you: it wasn't Yan Country that saved you, but the Jinyang Army—the Lord's Jinyang Army!"
"It wasn't Yan Country that saved me either, but the Lord. I now owe my loyalty only to the Lord."
Yun Ye was stunned. "Isn't the Jinyang Army part of Yan Country?"
Yun Yu shook his head. "It is and it isn't. The Jinyang Army was an army the Lord built single-handedly when the country was crumbling and on the verge of destruction. It belongs only to the Lord."
"And the reason the Lord saved you is because you are the heroes of Yan Country. Those who shed blood and gave everything for Yan, who remained brave and unyielding—they deserve respect wherever they go."
Yun Ye exchanged glances with the others and asked solemnly, "May I ask the Lord's name?"
"Jiang Jin, the sixth daughter of the Yan Emperor." Yun Yu puffed out his chest. "Her title: Jinyang!"
At the military camp in East Lake County.
Tang Tishou listened to Song Gui's sniveling account, feeling his temples throb violently. "They said they hit the wrong people?"
Song Gui nodded, wiping his tears. "The Dragon King Gang mistook us for the Dragon Tiger Gang. The two gangs must have some private feud, so they—"
Zhu Dian couldn't help but kick him. "Do you even have a brain? She said it was a mistake, so you just took it? This is obviously the Jinyang Army's doing!"
Song Gui was knocked to the ground and looked up in shock. "What? Why?"
Zhu Dian was so frustrated he felt like spitting blood. "Why? They used the Dragon King Gang's name, so now we have no excuse to go after the Jinyang Army. What do you think 'why' means?"
He was so angry his chest ached. "This is utterly outrageous. They killed our people, took our Han slaves, and just say 'wrong target' to brush it off. I've never met anyone so shameless!"
Song Gui stammered, "Then... then what do we do?"
He suddenly fell to his knees, crying out, "Wuwuwu, your subordinate is too stupid, I don't understand anything! The Jinyang Army is utterly despicable, wuwuwu..."
In truth, he had felt something was off, but the chaos at the time and his worry over Qu Wenzhou's injuries had kept him from thinking too much about it.
Looking back now, it was clear: a bizarre Dragon King Gang, a claim of mistaken identity, and then they, the Qu Zhao forces, had no choice but to swallow the loss.
Tang Tishou rubbed his temples. "Have Qu Wenzhou's injuries been examined? How is he?"
Zhu Dian sighed. "Already looked at. It's all crushed. The doctor said he'll do his best, but the situation isn't optimistic. From now on, he probably..."
He kicked Song Gui again. "You fool! All the people they killed were our soldiers and officials—it was clearly targeted. How could you not see something was wrong?"
Song Gui fell to the ground from the kick but, ignoring the pain, knelt prostrate. "Wuwuwu, how could your subordinate have imagined the Jinyang Army would be so despicable?"
"Enough." Tang Tishou gritted his teeth. "And yet—yet the Jinyang Army didn't kill Qu Wenzhou, nor his child."
In truth, he wished the Jinyang Army had killed Qu Wenzhou. That way, the Grand General might have flown into a rage and sent troops to wipe them out.
The Jinyang Army's combat prowess was exceptional, and they were full of tricks. With such a neighbor, how could he eat or sleep in peace?
Unfortunately, the Jinyang Army had deftly seized the Grand General's bottom line.
Qu Wenzhou might be crippled, but he already had sons and daughters.
To others, whether or not he could 'stand up again' didn't really matter.
Zhu Dian was also heaving with anger. He stepped forward and kicked Song Gui one more time. "Get the hell out of here!"
A flicker of resentment passed through Song Gui's eyes, but he dared not say a word. He scrambled to his feet, bowed to Tang Tishou, and backed out of the room.
Zhu Dian let out a light breath to calm himself. "General, are you suspecting that they deliberately didn't kill Qu Wenzhou?"
Tang Tishou nodded. "She knows Qu Wenzhou is our red line, so she spared him. For now, the Jinyang Army doesn't want to start a war with us."
Zhu Dian furrowed his brow in thought. After a moment, he looked up at Tang Tishou. "So she's openly telling us she did it? Isn't she afraid we'll come knocking?"
Tang Tishou shook his head. "Do you think the Grand General would agree to that?"
If Qu Wenzhou had died at the very start of the siege, Qu Shilang would have regretted it, but he wouldn't have gotten too angry—after all, the man would have died for Qu Zhao.
Word had it that Qu Wenzhou's family had even held a grand funeral for him, and the Great Chanyu had praised him for dying with valor.
But then Qu Wenzhou didn't die.
The Jinyang Army had signaled that they were open to negotiation.
No matter what mindset the Grand General had agreed to the exchange under, if they accepted the terms and then took the exchange goods only to kill the person—the Grand General would not have taken it lightly.
Yet the Jinyang Army had pressed right against that bottom line, sparing Qu Wenzhou, the one the Grand General cared about most.
Zhu Dian slumped heavily into a seat. "If that's the case, the Jinyang Army's original target must have been those two hundred-plus Northeastern Army soldiers. It's just that the other side saw through our weakness and was able to drive a hard bargain."
"But those crippled failures—what use could they possibly be?" he asked, baffled.
Tang Tishou was silent for a long time before finally saying, "Maybe... winning people's hearts."
Zhu Dian frowned and sighed. "What a pity about those fifteen thousand Han slaves."
In Gufeng.
"Good, good, good." Yun Ci looked at the two hundred-plus surviving Northeastern Army soldiers and said "good" three times, but his heart was aching so much it nearly suffocated him.
The Northeastern Army soldiers were also overwhelmed with emotion. They immediately bowed deeply to Yun Ci. To be able to see the General again, they had no regrets in this life.
Yun Ye choked up, unable to speak. This man, who had raised him like a father, taught him martial arts, and held up the Northeastern Army, was now sitting in a wheelchair.
Yun Ci made a gesture of support without actually touching them. "No need for that. From now on, the Lord will arrange everything for you. For now, the most important thing is to focus on recovering your health. Don't worry about anything else."
Yun Ye looked down at his mutilated hand. "We are already useless. All we can do is waste food."
A wave of despair spread through the Northeastern Army ranks.
Yun Ci shook his head. "Don't belittle yourselves. Since the Lord went to the trouble of rescuing you, there must be a purpose. Just wait and see."
He pointed to his own leg. "My leg is crippled. I can't go to the battlefield anymore, but I still serve under the Lord, managing the weapons workshop now."
"Lift your heads and look. The Dragon Feather Crossbows in their hands—are they not the products of the weapons workshop under my charge?" He said this with a hint of pride, tilting his chin toward the city wall.
The group followed his gaze and indeed saw the garrison soldiers on the wall holding repeating crossbows. They had never seen this type of crossbow before, but one glance told them its power must be significant.
Yun Ci patted Yun Ye on the shoulder. "You'll come to understand. Our Lord—she has great vision and talent. She certainly won't let you just sit around doing nothing."
For the first time in a while, Yun Ye and the others managed a smile.
But when they entered the city, they realized just how out of place they were in this place that was both familiar and strange.
Gufeng was still Gufeng, yet it was nothing like the city they remembered.
The tranquility and prosperity within the city walls exceeded their imaginations. It seemed they had never seen a city so peaceful and so full of life.
The citizens of the city did not show contempt for their ragged appearance; instead, in the eyes of the townsfolk, they saw respect and admiration, as if they were heroes returning in triumph.
