Ji Jun felt utterly humiliated. He raised the bow in his hand. “Looking for death.”
Hua Ruo lifted a hand. The female soldiers behind her instantly raised their crossbows, and a volley of arrows flew. Cries of agony rang out.
The burly man had never imagined that the Jinyang army would attack without so much as a warning. He had intended to threaten them first and only fight if that failed.
Who could have guessed that the other side would be even more ruthless than he was? For a moment, he was caught completely off guard.
Besides, this was his first time facing the repeating crossbows of the Jinyang army. Their speed was far beyond anything he had imagined—far too fast!
He managed to deflect one arrow, but when the second came, he had no time to defend himself. It struck him in the chest.
The two men beside him shouted and quickly dragged the wounded burly man behind a large tree.
“Ah!” The man on the right was struck by an arrow and fell to the ground.
The man on the left successfully hauled the burly man behind the tree.
Unfortunately, the arrow had struck the burly man in the heart. By then, he was exhaling far more than he inhaled, and before long, he breathed his last.
The man’s eyes bulged with rage. He roared, raised his bow, and strode out from behind the tree where he had been hiding.
Hua Ruo’s gaze sharpened, and she shot an arrow at him.
With a wet thud, the arrow struck him in the chest.
That was the advantage of a repeating crossbow: there was no need to draw the bow, and an expert did not even need to take careful aim. All they had to do was pull the trigger to kill.
Although the Jinyang army possessed that advantage and had seized the initiative, the first volley killed only about thirty percent of the Ji soldiers.
The trees provided cover, and it was not easy to wipe out an entire force in one stroke within such a dense forest.
The Ji army was not foolish, either. Every one of them was an experienced veteran, and many had concealed themselves behind large trees from the very beginning.
Hua Ruo was not in a hurry. That was simply how combat in the forest worked—one target at a time.
The sudden deaths of their leader and so many comrades left the Ji soldiers shocked and terrified. They hid wherever they could and began firing back, sending arrows flying wildly through the woods.
“Get down!” Hua Ruo shouted, ordering the civilians to lie flat to avoid being hit by the Ji army’s stray arrows.
Before her voice had even faded, she made a graceful leap and caught hold of a tree branch with one hand. With a slight exertion, she kicked twice against the trunk with both feet. Dodging an incoming arrow, she was already in the tree.
Taking advantage of her elevated position, she fired three arrows in quick succession, killing three Ji soldiers without even needing to aim carefully.
Mu Chunhua and the other female soldiers also moved swiftly, repositioning themselves as they continued shooting down Ji soldiers.
The Ji army finally realized that they were no match for the Jinyang army’s repeating crossbows and began retreating in an orderly fashion.
Hua Ruo naturally had no intention of letting them escape. She had spent this entire period stationed far behind the lines and had rarely had any chance to kill the enemy. Now that she had finally encountered a group foolish enough to seek their own deaths, she had to wipe them out completely.
With a thump, she landed lightly on the ground and gave chase in the direction the Ji soldiers had fled.
Hearing the screams that rang out from time to time, all the civilians trembled in terror. They lay flat on the ground, not daring to move.
No one knew how much time passed before the screams gradually ceased and silence settled over the dense forest.
Xu Gui gathered his courage and raised his head. He saw several female soldiers scanning their surroundings with wary expressions. As though sensing his gaze, one of them looked over.
Xu Gui hurriedly lowered his head again. He could feel the warmth rising from the ground and smell the rotting leaves. Sweat trickled down his face.
His heart was filled with excitement and unease. This was an extraordinarily fierce Han Chinese army—even though every one of its soldiers was a woman.
The female soldiers did not tell the civilians to get up. It was not that they lacked consideration for the people; they simply could not yet be certain that all of them were harmless.
There were not many soldiers, yet they had several hundred civilians to guard. Having everyone remain on the ground was the safest arrangement for them.
After roughly another quarter of an hour, Hua Ruo finally returned with the others.
Mu Chunhua and the other female soldiers followed behind her, all of them grinning broadly, their bodies laden with spoils of war.
One of the female soldiers who had stayed behind laughed. “Commander, did we wipe them all out?”
Hua Ruo nodded. “Mm.”
She looked at the civilians, who were still lying on the ground. “You can all get up now. Tell me what happened.”
While pursuing the Ji soldiers, she had seen the corpses of more than a dozen civilians. From that, she had concluded that these people really were Han Chinese civilians fleeing for their lives.
The civilians rose shakily. Xu Gui was the first to speak.
“Are you a Han Chinese army? Has Shangjing Commandery returned to Han Chinese control?”
Hua Ruo nodded firmly. “That’s right. We are the Jinyang army. Our liege is Princess Jinyang. Shangjing Commandery and Punan Commandery have both returned to her control.”
“That’s wonderful! Heaven bless the Great Han!”
The civilians were all overwhelmed with excitement. They earnestly gave thanks to the heavens, and quite a few of them began sobbing softly.
Hua Ruo was very patient and did not urge them. Only after they had calmed down did she return to her earlier question.
“What happened to you?”
Xu Gui wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and nodded.
“We’re villagers from Lotus Village in Fenglin County, Shouci Commandery. Ever since Shouci Commandery fell, we’ve been enslaved by the Ji army.”
Recently, no one knew what was happening, but the Ji soldiers had been moving around frequently. Although the villagers were merely farmers who understood little of military affairs, they instinctively sensed that something major had changed within the Ji army.
They had no way to gather information, but the Ji soldiers guarding them watched them work all day and would occasionally discuss matters among themselves. Sometimes, they even cursed the Han Chinese army for being despicable.
From those scattered bits of conversation, the villagers learned that Shangjing Commandery had actually been recaptured by the Han Chinese.
The very thought of it made them tremble with excitement, and that was why they had decided to flee—to reach territory under Han Chinese control.
Recently, the Ji army had been in a state of panic and had no mind to keep watch, making it the perfect time to escape.
The villagers had finally found an opportunity to flee the previous night. Unfortunately, they had both old and young among them, and they had been weakened by prolonged hunger. Since it was also nighttime, they could not move very quickly.
Thus, even though they had set out long before, the Ji soldiers had still caught up with them.
Luckily, they had encountered Hua Ruo and the others. Otherwise, their entire village might have been wiped out.
After finishing his account, Xu Gui looked at Hua Ruo and the others with hope in his eyes.
“We can do anything. We’re not afraid of hard work.”
“We only want to return to Han Chinese territory. We don’t want to be slaves anymore. We don’t want to belong to anyone—we only want to live as honest, free people. Please, military lady, take us back to Shangjing Commandery.”
As he spoke, he began to kneel.
Hua Ruo quickly helped him back up. “There’s no need for that. Now that we understand what happened, of course we’ll take you back.”
However, she still had a mission to carry out, so she assigned only a few female soldiers to lead the villagers.
The civilians were overjoyed and hurriedly thanked them.
As for the corpses of the villagers who had been killed, no one mentioned them again. At a time like this, the living mattered most. Besides, no one knew whether more Ji soldiers might be pursuing them from behind.
While Chongzhou was plunged into chaos by war, the rain in Sizhou finally began to ease.
Li Tong’s face, however, remained deeply worried. “The lord should have received the message by now, shouldn’t she? I wonder whether she’ll come to Sizhou to provide disaster relief.”
Mei Sheng hesitated. “She probably won’t, will she? This is Sizhou.”
Chen Xi shook his head. “The lord is compassionate. It’s hard to say.”
After pondering for a moment, he said, “Let’s purchase some medicinal supplies first, so we’ll have them on hand if needed.”
Fengzhou had high-yield grain varieties and was not short of food, but it was desperately short of medicinal supplies.
Mei Sheng frowned. “If we buy medicinal supplies now, the price will be high. What if the lord doesn’t provide disaster relief? Wouldn’t that make it a waste?”
