Chapter 103
When they finally saw the flag of the reinforcements brought by Tang Peiyi, Fan Changyu and the soldiers who were fighting numbly behind him suddenly felt that there was hope of fighting out.
Many soldiers became excited and killed the enemies more bravely.
Captain Guo was also overjoyed and shouted: "I almost thought I would die here!"
Tang Peiyi also saw Fan Changyu's vanguard flag, and led the reinforcements towards this side. When the rebels saw that it was hopeless to encircle and annihilate them, the commander rode his horse and raised the command flag, waving flags quickly.
The bandits that were chasing Fan Changyu and the others were not biting as hard anymore, and they quickly joined up with the reinforcements brought by Tang Peiyi.
Tang Peiyi saw Fan Changyu sitting on his horse and said with some surprise: "You are the one who responded to the situation on the battlefield and led the right wing army to charge into the enemy camp as the vanguard?"
Fan Changyu was now in a state of panic. His helmet had long been lost somewhere, but the small bun on his head was still together. His face was covered in blood and dust, except for his pair of eyes, which were still dark and captivating, like a tiger coming down the mountain.
She was so tired that she had to hold up her sword to stand steadily. She was about to answer with a fist, but Tang Peiyi saw that they were exhausted and raised his hand to signal her not to do so. He said, "The Right Wing Army has made great contributions this time. After this battle, I will go to Heshang personally to ask for credit for you!"
The tired-looking soldiers behind Fan Changyu were all energized upon hearing this, their joy evident on their faces.
There was a commotion on the battlefield ahead. Fan Changyu and the others couldn't see what was going on because of the crowds of people. But Tang Peiyi turned his head on his horse and took a look. His expression quickly became serious and he ordered, "The rebels are trying to surround General He. Follow me to support them!"
This time, with Tang Peiyi's troops leading the way, and Fan Changyu and the right wing army following behind, they were finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.
Tang Peiyi led the cavalry to clear a path and quickly made way for the rebels who surrounded He Jingyuan's 5,000 troops from the rear.
Fan Changyu then led the right-wing army to squeeze in through the gap, killing the rebels on both sides and widening the gap to make it easier for the Jizhou army trapped in the formation to retreat at any time if encountering any unexpected situation.
This time, with generals like Tang Peiyi and He Jingyuan attracting the main force to fight against the bandits, they only needed to clean out the small soldiers around, which was a lot easier than before.
But the formation of the cavalry led by Tang Peiyi suddenly became chaotic for some reason, and even allowed the counter-attacks from both wings to kill into the cavalry formation.
Fan Changyu and the others could not help but look towards the center of the military camp, but there were so many people around that they could not see anything clearly.
Captain Guo cursed: "Damn it, what happened in front?"
Someone on the other side of the thief shouted, "He Jingyuan is dead!"
As the roar spread, the rebels became excited.
In the Hezhou army, whether it was the cavalry led by Tang Peiyi or the right-wing army that followed Fan Changyu to fight, there was a moment of shock and panic on their faces.
He Jingyuan was the commander-in-chief of the attack on Chongzhou. Now that he is dead, how can we continue the war?
Fan Changyu pursed her cracked lips, glanced at the chaotic battlefield ahead, turned her head and said to the surviving soldiers in her team: "You stay here to protect the captain, you don't have to follow me!"
Yan Jue actually headed straight towards the direction where the commotion on the battlefield came from.
Xie Zheng once told her that He Jingyuan was an old friend of his parents.
She had been in Chongzhou for such a long time and had been staying in the military camp all the time. She had not gone directly to He Jingyuan to ask anything under the name of Master Tao or Xie Zheng. She just wanted to get promoted in the military on her own so that she would be qualified to meet He Jingyuan and ask him about her parents.
She wanted to avenge her parents herself, so naturally she had to rely on her own abilities. In this matter, Fan Changyu was unwilling to rely too much on Master Tao and Xie Zheng.
Who would have thought that in the first big battle, she was fine, but it was the commander-in-chief He Jingyuan who died?
No matter what, she wanted to rush to the front and take a look.
Xie Wuer followed her without saying anything. Seeing this, a soldier who was loyal to Fan Changyu also raised his weapon and wanted to follow, but was stopped by Captain Guo who had just chopped off the head of a rebel. He was so angry that his beard was almost crooked. He cursed: "One by one, your heads are too comfortable on your necks!"
The soldier was yelled at so hard that he started to cry: "General He is dead. Captain Fan should go in and find General He. I also want to go in and grab General He's body."
He Jingyuan was well-known for loving his people and soldiers like his own sons, and everyone in Jizhou, from the military to the people, supported him very much.
When the soldiers under him suddenly heard the news of his death on the battlefield, they were thrown into disarray.
Captain Guo slapped the soldier on the face and scolded him, "It's not your turn to be a hero. Don't you know your own weight? Guard this gap for me!"
-
Fan Changyu fought his way forward, and in order to better see the battle situation ahead, he even stole a horse from the rebels.
She did not recognize He Jingyuan, but when she saw Tang Peiyi fighting with the same Chongzhou general, she urged her horse to kill him.
Tang Peiyi turned his spear and saw Fan Changyu, and shouted: "Hurry up and rescue General He back to the camp!"
When Fan Changyu heard Tang Peiyi's words, he felt relieved.
He Jingyuan is not dead!
I'm afraid the previous news was deliberately spread by the rebels to disrupt their morale.
She glanced around and saw a general from Jizhou who had fallen off his horse and was struggling with the rebels not far away. She quickly picked up the rebels and killed them all the way over there, shouting at the top of her voice, "But General He?"
The old general raised his head. Even though his beard was stained red by the blood he coughed up and his face was also stained with blood, Fan Changyu still recognized him at a glance as the general who had taught him swordsmanship before.
She was shocked, and many thoughts flashed through her mind at that moment. Due to the danger of the battlefield, she had to suppress them temporarily. She slashed with her sword, cut a bloody path and rushed to the old general. She stretched out a hand to the old general and said, "General, I will help you kill them!"
After He Jingyuan chopped down a rebel soldier, he had to support his long sword with both hands to stand steadily. He raised his old and tired eyes to look at Fan Changyu, with a hint of relief in his eyes, "It's you... cough cough cough..."
He covered his lips and started coughing violently. Even though he tried hard to conceal it, the blood he coughed out still flowed out from between his fingers.
Fan Changyu realized that He Jingyuan's situation was not optimistic. She lowered her eyes and saw an arrow with the tail cut off stuck in He Jingyuan's breastplate. The blood seeping out had dyed the entire piece of armor red.
Seeing that there were more rebel leaders surrounding them like hyenas, and He Jingyuan was seriously injured and seemed unable to swing his sword, she didn't think twice, jumped off her horse with a loud shout, and chopped forward with her sword.
When Xie Wu arrived, Fan Changyu shouted at him, "Take General He away!"
He Jingyuan knew Xie Wu, and naturally understood that he would appear on the battlefield, most likely on Xie Zheng's orders to protect Fan Changyu.
Perhaps sensing that his time was up, He Jingyuan thought of the entanglement between the fathers of the Xie and Fan families. Then, he looked at Fan Changyu who was fighting with several Chongzhou young generals to protect his like-minded friends, and he felt bitter in his mouth.
Xie Wu carried He Jingyuan onto the horse, while Fan Changyu fought and retreated, trying hard not to be trapped and killed by the rebels.
On the other side, Tang Peiyi was finally defeated by Prince Changxin. He was knocked off his horse by a blow of his stick. He rolled on the ground and avoided the stabbings of his soldiers.
When Prince Changxin saw He Jingyuan being rescued, he rode his horse to catch up and shouted, "Where are you going, Wei family dog?"
He thrust out the lion-head spear in his hand, and Xie Wu tried to receive it with his weapon, but was knocked to his knees by the blow from Prince Changxin, with half of his knee buried in the dirt. The back of the knife pressed against his shoulder, and blood was oozing out of his shoulder even through his armor.
Xie Wu's teeth were clenched so hard that a smell of blood wafted out of them. The knuckles of his five fingers that were gripping the hilt turned white, but he still couldn't lift the lion-head spear that was resting on his blade even a little bit.
Prince Changxin exerted more force on his hand, and Xie Wu spat out a mouthful of blood, but he still did not let go, and stared at Prince Changxin with his eyes.
Prince Changxin laughed loudly: "Good boy, a vanguard has such ability. You are really buried in Jizhou. Why don't you come to work under me?"
Xie Wu uttered a harsh “Pooh”.
Prince Changxin's face turned cold, and he shouted, "You don't know how to lift me!"
He was trying to kill Xie Wu with the lion-head spear, but He Jingyuan, who was on horseback, blocked the attack with his spear.
He Jingyuan was not only wounded by arrows, but also had severe internal injuries. Whenever he exerted himself, he would cough uncontrollably, and it felt like his internal organs were about to shatter.
After blocking only that spear, he fell on his horse's back, coughing non-stop, and urged Xie Wu: "Don't worry about me, just run away!"
Prince Changxin sneered: "What are you afraid of? None of you can escape today!"
He rounded the lion-head spear in his hand and stabbed at Xie Wu again, but he extended a long black iron sword diagonally and blocked his weapon.
Prince Changxin felt a numbness in the palm of his hand due to the sudden force generated by the clash of the two soldiers. He looked in surprise at the boy who suddenly appeared.
The opponent was wearing a tattered uniform of a soldier from Jizhou, his face was covered with blood and dust, and he was relatively thin among the men. He stood there holding a long sword, but he had the posture of a single man blocking the pass and ten thousand men unable to pass.
Prince Changxin wondered, "It's strange today. The soldiers in the Jizhou army are more powerful than each other."
Fan Changyu shouted: "Kill you, the traitor and villain. We will just be the vanguard!"
Her voice was extremely hoarse, like that of a teenager, and for a moment Prince Changxin did not doubt her identity.
Prince Changxin sneered, "Arrogant boy! Take my spear!"
He urged his horse forward and stabbed with a series of attacks with the lion-head spear in his hand. Fan Changyu blocked and dodged. Apart from Xie Zheng and He Jingyuan, this was the first time for her to fight against such a general. The opponent's attack was swift and the angles were tricky, and Fan Changyu had to deal with it particularly hard.
Seeing that Fan Changyu had fallen into a disadvantage, Xie Wu also knew that Prince Changxin was ruthless and would not show any mercy. He was extremely anxious, and when Tang Peiyi finally managed to kill his way through the group of soldiers, he asked Tang Peiyi to protect He Jingyuan and retreat, while he rushed over to help Fan Changyu.
Tang Peiyi was worried about Fan Changyu and the others, and also about He Jingyuan's injury, so he protected He Jingyuan and retreated to the Jizhou Army. Seeing that He Jingyuan's lips had turned pale, he could not help but scold him: "You bastard Prince Changxin, what's the point of sneaking up on him during a fight? If you hadn't been hit by this arrow, you might not have been a match for him."
He Jingyuan's face turned somewhat gloomy as he thought back to the arrow that shot him.
Being wounded by stray arrows on the battlefield was not uncommon, but he vaguely understood who had shot the arrow in order to kill him at the hands of Prince Changxin.
The Prime Minister is so anxious to get rid of him because he is afraid that he will tell others about the affair between the Fan couple?
Then is Wei Qilin innocent of the grain transportation error that year?
He suddenly grabbed Tang Peiyi's hand and said with difficulty: "Go, bring that child out."
Tang Peiyi was stunned at first, then he guessed that He Jingyuan was probably talking about Fan Changyu. He was reluctant to see such a good seedling die in the hands of Prince Changxin, so he hurriedly said, "I will go to help her now, and you can go back to the camp to get medical treatment first!"
-
Even with the combined efforts of Fan Changyu and Xie Wu, it was still extremely difficult to deal with the attack of Prince Changxin.
Her swordsmanship had improved, but compared to veterans like Prince Changxin who had fought on the battlefield for decades, her skills were still too immature. In addition, her body was too tired, so her attack was not as strong as before.
However, after Prince Changxin saw through her martial arts skills, he looked at Fan Changyu and suddenly asked, "Who are you, He Jingyuan?"
Fan Changyu panted while holding his sword, and shouted, "I am the commander of the army of Jizhou!"
Prince Changxin sneered: "This set of swordsmanship was created by the two great generals of the Wei family, He Jingyuan and his sworn brother. His sworn brother has passed away for many years. Now only He Jingyuan can still use this set of swordsmanship. How can a mere vanguard learn from him?"
When Fan Changyu heard these words, he was stunned.
This set of sword techniques was taught to her by her father, and she was particularly familiar with it when He Jingyuan taught her that day.
Could it be that her father was He Jingyuan's sworn brother?
Before she could come to her senses, Prince Changxin turned the spear in his hand and rode straight towards her: "When I capture you, I will negotiate some terms with He Jingyuan while he is still alive!"
The man took advantage of the horse's momentum to attack, but Fan Changyu was not foolish enough to withstand it. When Xie Wu warned him, he dodged it.
Just then, Tang Peiyi rode back to help them. While Tang Peiyi was fighting with Prince Changxin, Fan Changyu, relying on the longness of his Mo Dao, chopped at the hind legs of Prince Changxin's horse.
The warhorse fell to the side, and Prince Changxin jumped up with the tip of his spear touching the ground, but he did not fall. After landing, he was ready to attack with his eyes glaring.
Tang Peiyi's charge failed, so he turned his horse's head and shouted, "You thief, come and kill me!"
However, when the two of them came into close combat, Prince Changxin imitated Fan Changyu's previous move, turned around and stabbed Tang Peiyi's horse, injuring him.
The warhorse was frightened and ran madly on the battlefield. Tang Peiyi hurriedly abandoned the horse and jumped off its back, rolling several times before he lost his strength.
By this point in the battle, Fan Changyu and Xie Wu were not only exhausted, but also had wounds of varying sizes on their bodies. Xie Wu had even suffered internal injuries from the pressure he had received from Prince Changxin when he had been struck by the sword before, and he was already struggling to hold on at this point.
Fan Changyu understood that even if she and Tang Peiyi joined forces, they would still be no match for Prince Changxin.
She was so exhausted that she could hardly even swing her Mo Dao. If they continued to waste time like this, Prince Changxin would surely be the first to capture them.
She set her sights on a young general from Chongzhou who came on horseback to help Prince Changxin, and suddenly rushed towards him.
The young general discovered Fan Changyu's intention and hurriedly raised his spear to stab him, but Fan Changyu grabbed the handle of his spear and dragged him off the horse. Fan Changyu climbed onto the saddle with one hand and climbed onto the horse while the warhorse was galloping. When Prince Changxin was trying to kill Tang Peiyi, he found a gap and slashed at him with his sword.
Prince Changxin narrowly escaped and tried to chase Fan Changyu, but two legs could not catch up with four legs. Tang Peiyi, who received a signal from Fan Changyu, also hurriedly retreated.
When the other young generals from Chongzhou who came to help arrived, Prince Changxin seized a horse and went after Fan Changyu.
Fan Changyu leaned his whole body on the horse's back, not fighting back, but just leading Prince Changxin to run.
She was panting even harder than the galloping warhorse she was riding, and tried to lead Prince Changxin for a few laps to recover her strength before fighting again.
Prince Changxin seemed to have discovered her intention. He took the big bow on the horse's back, put on the white feather arrow and shot it towards Fan Changyu.
Feeling the arrowhead whizzing past his scalp, Fan Changyu really felt as if he might lose his life here, so he could only lower his body as much as possible.
Unable to hit the person, Prince Changxin turned to shoot the warhorse that Fan Changyu was riding.
When the horse fell to its knees with a hissing sound after being shot in the leg by an arrow, Fan Changyu fell to the ground, his Mo Dao fell to the side, and he could only gasp for breath, seemingly without the strength to resist anymore.
The King of Changxin pointed his lion-head spear at Fan Changyu's neck, but he didn't see her Adam's apple, so he frowned and asked, "Is it a girl?"
Fan Changyu looked tired and said nothing.
He used his spear to pierce Fan Changyu's breastplate under his ribs, as if he wanted to pick him up and carry him away on his horse.
Unexpectedly, when he grabbed Fan Changyu's collar and was about to hang her upside down in front of the saddle and take her away, Fan Changyu suddenly attacked. She pulled out the boning knife hidden under her wrist guard and inserted it into Prince Changxin's armpit where there was no armor protection.
It's a pity that she was a butcher, removing bones and separating meat. She knew exactly which parts of the armpit were bones and which were fascia and cartilage.
The knife went straight to the handle without encountering any resistance.
"You..." Prince Changxin was almost speechless when he looked at his sleeve which was soaked with blood in an instant, and then looked at Fan Changyu.
He swallowed the blood that was rising to his throat, drew out his short sword and stabbed at Fan Changyu's neck.
Fan Changyu's breastplate was still pierced on Prince Changxin's lion-head spear, and he had no way of avoiding it. He could only grab the sharp sword with his bare hands and hold it tightly so that Prince Changxin could not press down on his neck anymore.
This was a huge gamble, a bet on whether Prince Changxin would die first from the knife stabbing into his ribs, or whether she would let go due to exhaustion and pain and die from the sword first.
Fan Changyu saw double in front of her eyes due to the severe pain and the loss of blood. Sweat flowed down her forehead. Just when she could no longer hold on and was about to let go, the Prince of Changxin in front of her suddenly shuddered, and the blood that she had been holding back in her throat spurted out.
A white-feathered arrow pierced through his chest. The triangular arrow head even pierced through the mountain armor on his chest, revealing a bloody arrow tip.
When Prince Changxin fell from his horse, Fan Changyu's breastplate was still pierced on his lion-head spear, and his hands were cut by the sword. He was in great pain and could not free himself for a while, so he was taken off the horse as well.
But at the moment of falling, he saw a man standing on horseback in the distance with a bow in his hand.
There was a hideous scar on the man's face that ran from the bridge of his nose across the left side of his face, and his right eye was covered, as if the scar extended all the way up to his right eye.
Fan Changyu recognized the man. He was the one who saved her when she was almost drowned in the icy lake by bandits.
As she fell, the man opposite her had already galloped towards her on his horse. It was clearly a battlefield full of fighting, but everything around her seemed to be still, with only the dust raised by his horse.
The blade of the sword cut through her breastplate, the lion-head spear fell to the ground, and she was grabbed onto the horse's back.
When his back was pressed against the man's chest, Fan Changyu called out his name: "Yan Zheng?"
But she didn't hear the other party's answer. When she smelled the familiar scent on him, the tense nerves in Fan Changyu's head relaxed, and she fainted due to exhaustion and excessive blood loss.
So she didn't know how tightly the other person was holding her, and her arms were even shaking slightly.
-
It was two days later that Fan Changyu woke up again.
It’s not that she was seriously injured, she was just tired.
When she opened her eyelids and found that she was in her military tent, she breathed a sigh of relief. Just as she was about to get up, she was surprised to find that her muscles ached all over, and her hands were even twisted into rice dumplings.
She took a deep breath and recalled the person she saw before she passed out. For a moment, she couldn't tell whether it was reality or an illusion.
She habitually called out, "Xiao Wu?"
I didn't hear the answer. I remembered that Xie Wu was beaten to the point of vomiting blood by Prince Changxin on the battlefield. He might still be recuperating in the wounded tent now.
She used her tangled hands to support herself on the bed and tried to slowly get up, but the curtains were pulled open at this moment.
Xie Wu came in with a bowl of steaming hot medicine. "Captain, did you call me? I was just decocting medicine for you outside."
Fan Changyu hurriedly asked him, "How is your injury?"
Xie Wu replied: "It's just some minor injuries, it's almost healed."
His voice was still the same as before, but he seemed to have become much quieter, which made Fan Changyu feel out of place in every way.
She looked at the person in front of her in surprise and found that he seemed to have grown taller.
Fan Changyu was confused: "Xiaowu, how old are you this year?"
Xie Wu replied: "Seventeen."
Fan Changyu suddenly realized and nodded: "No wonder you seem to be much taller than before, it turns out you are still growing."
She stretched out her hands, which were tangled into two balls, and tried to take the medicine bowl that Xie Wu brought. Xie Wu hesitated and said, "The captain's hand is injured. Can I feed him?"
Fan Changyu gave him an even more strange look.
Xie Wu lowered his eyes and replied, "The military doctor said that the captain's hands have been injured. If he doesn't recover properly, I'm afraid he will have difficulty holding a weapon again in the future."
Fan Changyu looked at his tightly wrapped hands and said, "I was injured so badly."
There was no trace of concern in her tone, she only asked: "How are the casualties in our team?"
Xie Wu replied: "Thirteen were killed in the battle, seventeen were seriously injured, and the rest were slightly injured."
As if knowing that Fan Changyu had just joined the army and might not be aware of the casualties in each battle, he added: "It is common for the entire vanguard army to be wiped out. It is a blessing that more than half of the casualties have been lost. The captain does not need to blame himself too much."
Even so, Fan Changyu still felt heavy-hearted and said, "When the military pension comes, I'll send it to their families along with my share of the bonus."
Xie Wu glanced at Fan Changyu and said, "Captain, you killed Prince Changxin and made the greatest contribution in this battle. Your reward will be at least 1,000 taels."
Fan Changyu was stunned: "I killed him?"
Xie Wu nodded.
Fan Changyu carefully recalled what happened before she fell into a coma. She remembered that after she stabbed Prince Changxin, Xie Zheng shot him with an arrow before he died completely.
She frowned and asked Xie Wu, "Didn't he...come to the army? I remember seeing him on the battlefield, and he shot Prince Changxin with an arrow to save me."
Xie Wu's eyes were unexpectedly silent, as gloomy as the deep sea that had not been exposed to sunlight for thousands of years. He said, "The Grand Tutor was assassinated when he went to the capital and disappeared. The Marquis was worried about his safety and went to track down the person who kidnapped him. He is not in Chongzhou."
When Fan Changyu heard this, his expression changed immediately: "Adoptive father!"
She was so excited that she wanted to get up, but she fell back because of the sore muscles all over her body. Xie Wuyanji quickly supported her, and when he noticed the circle of tooth marks on his index finger, he retracted his hand in an instant.
Fan Changyu was preoccupied with so many things that he didn't notice Xie Wu's abnormality at this moment. He just muttered to himself, "My foster father is fine, why did he suddenly go to the capital?"
Thinking of the death of Prince Changxin, she said firmly: "I only stabbed Prince Changxin under the armpit. The arrow in his body was not shot by me. Someone helped me, a one-eyed scarred man..."
She actually wanted to say that the person should be Xie Zheng.
Xie Wu interrupted her and said, "When General Tang and I caught up with him, the captain fell off his horse with a broken arrow in his hand. It was undoubtedly the captain who killed Prince Changxin. Could it be that the captain came down from the battlefield and was in a state of terror?"
When Fan Changyu heard him say this, there was a moment of confusion on his face.
Could it be that she was not conscious at the time and remembered it wrongly? She stabbed Prince Changxin with an arrow herself, but subconsciously thought that someone had rescued her?
She was still in a daze when someone came to her from outside the tent and asked in a gruff voice, "Captain Fan, can you live here?"
Xie Wu then opened the curtain and replied, "Yes, I wonder what this brother wants to see my captain about?"
The other party said: "General He reported that Team Fan is on the way."
The author has something to say:
This is the second and third update that I owed yesterday. I was so sleepy while writing last night that I fell asleep as soon as I lay down. It’s even later. QAQ. I’m sending 100 red envelopes to everyone~
There is no update for today~
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