Chapter 117
Arrows and blades slashed at his body, slowing his progress but not stopping him.
Exhausted, with only ten steps remaining, Xie Chengnan shunned the Li army soldier who had been riddled with arrows.
An arrow grazed his calf and pierced the ground, spraying blood and causing a burning pain.
The assassin quickly dragged him into another empty tent.
The night clothes were conspicuous in the bright environment. Seeing that they could not evacuate the Li army camp before dawn, the two took off their black camouflage clothes, revealing the Xili army armor hidden inside.
"Where is the Crown Prince of Xili?" Xie Chengnan asked as he changed his clothes. His breathing was rapid and heavy because he had just experienced a fierce battle.
"We haven't found it yet," the assassin said.
"How many people are left? Have the supplies been burned?"
"...I'm the only one. Burn it down, the Li army is putting out the fire on the east side."
Of the five who came, only two remained. Xie Chengnan was silent for a moment. "Go back." He swallowed hard. "The King of Xili is dead. If the Crown Prince stays here, he will definitely go to the royal tent to check the news."
"I'll go." The assassin's eyes showed no fear or hesitation towards death, only a resolute determination to die. "General, you must live."
"Are you confident you can kill him by yourself?" Xie Chengnan reached out and pressed his shoulder. "I'm not confident either. It's best if none of us die, provided we kill him."
Only by killing the Crown Prince of Xili can this trip be considered complete. As for their lives, it would be a fitting end if they died, and it would be even better if they could live.
Escaping was already difficult enough, but turning back was even more impossible.
The royal tent was surrounded by Li soldiers. Some laid down their weapons and stood solemnly, seemingly mourning their king. Many more Li soldiers, armed, stood guard or searched each tent for any remaining assassins.
Further away, chaos reigned, and thick smoke billowed into the air.
And the sky had already brightened.
Xie Chengnan looked around but couldn't find the figure of the Crown Prince of Xili in the crowd.
Perhaps he is not in the Xili camp. But it is also possible that the Xili crown prince is in the royal tent at this moment.
The distance is too far to confirm the situation inside the royal tent.
He took a deep breath and then calmly turned out of the corner of the tent.
The two walked towards the royal tent one after the other, looking no different from ordinary patrolling soldiers of the Li army.
This garment was taken from the body of a dead Li soldier. Several knife marks on the armor were crookedly and crudely stitched together, mixed with the stale smell of blood. It actually concealed Xie Chengnan's fresh wounds quite well, making him look like a soldier who had just been wounded on the battlefield and was resting.
They weaved through the camp, trying to avoid most of the Li soldiers. When they encountered patrolling soldiers who questioned them, they used their broken Xili language to get through to them and finally managed to sneak into the front of the tents.
The assassin glanced at the composed and composed General of the Cavalry, then disdainfully touched the back of his sweat-dampened collar. He thought to himself, "This is the difference between people."
Judging from the voices, there was clearly more than one person inside the tent.
He lifted a corner of the tent flap, his gaze quickly sweeping across the king's tent—three men stood inside, all dressed in Xili military uniforms, the one in the middle, dressed strangely, being surrounded by others. Besides them, there was only a large man lying on the ground and a mess on the floor. The king's corpse and the Xili crown prince were not there.
Xie Chengnan stepped back slightly and gave the assassins a look, signaling them to retreat.
That is, at the same time as they were preparing to evacuate.
A soldier from the Xili army passing by outside the king's tent slapped the assassin hard on the shoulder and shouted, "What are you doing, sneaking around like that?"
The assassin instinctively wanted to retaliate, but Xie Chengnan was faster. He stopped the blade that had already been drawn half an inch, put on a smile, bowed and apologized to the Li soldier, claiming that they had taken the wrong path.
Li Jun looked the two men up and down suspiciously, then walked away grumbling.
Just as the two were about to breathe a sigh of relief, the royal tent behind them was lifted.
This commotion undoubtedly alerted the people inside.
The assassin felt the hairs on his back stand on end, his body beneath the soft armor tense, ready to enter a state of combat at any moment.
"What are you doing?" a Li soldier asked.
As soon as this question was asked, more and more eyes were drawn to the two of them.
The assassins were used to quick kills and covert assassinations, so they had never been watched in such a public eye before, and their backs began to stiffen.
Xie Chengnan thought to himself that he was having a really bad day. He turned around, forced himself to give the man a Xili military salute, and tried his best to casually reiterate the same excuse he had used countless times.
Before he could even speak, the strangely dressed man, adorned with silver ornaments, asked in the Anhui dialect, "Who is Xie Yanzhe to you?"
Xie Chengnan shuddered almost imperceptibly, and lowered his head even further.
The man's attire was unlike that of the Western Li people; he was covered in silver ornaments and seemed more like someone from the Southern Frontier. Before he could be shocked, a suspicion about the man's identity flashed through his mind, and he quickly considered a course of action.
The man didn't seem to expect an answer. He glanced at him again and confirmed his identity. "You look just like Qingyuan Envoy." His words were like poison, his tone vicious and filled with incomprehensible hatred.
Xie Chengnan subtly took a step back, a posture ready to retreat at any moment.
The man suddenly sneered and shouted in Xili, "The assassin who tried to kill the king is right here! Seize him—kill him without mercy!"
Xie Chengnan turned and ran, and the Li army around him swarmed forward as soon as they realized what was happening!
The assassins protected him as he fought and retreated through the crowd.
They seized weapons from the soldiers in front of them and struggled to escape, drawing blood with every step.
In the chaos, Xie Chengnan seemed to hear the taut sound of a bow being drawn behind him, tearing through the air and reaching his ears.
That was a giant crossbow bolt long enough to pierce the clouds.
It hurtled in, piercing the body of the assassin behind him, and still went on its way, piercing Xie Chengnan's chest and flying several feet away.
He was knocked to the ground and couldn't get up for a moment.
With great effort, he turned his head to look, only to find the assassin lying several feet away, his eyes wide open, dying with unseeing disbelief. Beside him stood the stable of the Xili tribe.
At such a distance, he should have been unable to hear it long ago, yet Xie Chengnan heard the sound of a bow being drawn. It was a person's instinctive perception of survival when facing death.
He rolled to the front of the stable, and at the same time, three arrows shot into the spot where he had been. The arrowheads were embedded three-tenths of an inch into the ground, and the fletchings were still vibrating!
Xie Chengnan struggled to mount his horse, blood gushing from his chest, dripping onto the horse's back and then onto the ground.
He no longer had time to think about whether he was even alive.
We must get out, no matter what, we must leave this place and go back to her side.
The dagger pierced the horse's back, and the horse neighed and struggled to escape the pain. Its front hooves suddenly lifted off the ground and then slammed heavily to the ground. In that instant, it miraculously avoided the arrow that was about to pierce its body.
The horse neighed mournfully and rode away in a cloud of dust.
"General, that man in golden armor is the Crown Prince of Xili. He's not in the Li army camp. The General of the Flying Cavalry and his men..."
Zhan Xian narrowed her eyes, and couldn't help but gasp as she drew her bow. The flesh on her shoulder, scalded by the shrapnel, was torn open again, and she instantly broke out in a cold sweat from the pain.
But this did not stop her from aiming her arrow at the person in golden armor in the crowd.
The Crown Prince of Xili fought bravely, his movements were wide and sweeping, and Zhan Xian searched for several positions before finally taking aim.
Even from a hundred paces away, she accurately struck the man. Unfortunately, the Crown Prince of Xili sensed the sudden danger and instinctively dodged, causing the arrow, which was meant to pierce his heart, to deviate slightly from its course.
Zhan Xian used all her strength to shoot this arrow; the black iron arrowhead was sharpened to an unparalleled edge, even piercing through the golden armor. But ultimately, its momentum was hindered, and it failed to penetrate the armor completely.
The immense force threw the man off the horse.
The Crown Prince of Xili crashed to the ground, startling his warhorse, which neighed and hooves pounded on him.
At the critical moment, the prince's guards swung their swords and severed the horse's hoof, rescuing the prince onto their own warhorses.
Zhan Xian's face turned pale. She immediately fired another arrow, but the previous arrow had been fired with too much force, and her shoulder and arm were trembling as she drew the bow.
In the midst of the dramatic turn of events, the guards had already escorted the Crown Prince to a swift retreat out of range.
"Chase!" Zhan Xian ordered. Cold sweat dripped down her paper-white face, falling to the ground before it could cool. She felt icy cold all over, and her hand holding the reins began to tremble.
The deputy said worriedly, "General Zhan, your injury!"
"Hold on for just one more moment," Zhan Xian said through gritted teeth, her words strained.
Xie Chengnan and the others haven't come out yet.
The longer they hold out, the longer the Xili people remain in chaos, the greater their chances of survival. She had promised someone she would safely bring them out…
The An army pursued the Li army all the way to their camp. The dense defensive arrow array at the sentry post rained down like a storm, effectively drawing a line that the An army could not get any closer.
Under such a dense attack, those inside cannot escape. A breach needs to be torn open.
"Shieldbearers, provide cover!"
The battle lasted a full hour, and the battle formations had long since dispersed. The shield bearers and the Li army were locked in combat. In the fierce fighting, no one could spare a moment to spare.
Anjun could only fight and push the retreating Li army to the front of the defensive line.
This won't work. In a battle between two armies, there is plenty of chaos, but when it comes to providing support, it's like rowing against the current.
The defenses will be weakest point only when the An army retreats and the Li army retreats into the camp. The only option is to gamble—to gamble that Xie Chengnan has completed his mission and successfully withdraws, waiting for an opportunity to emerge from around the outposts.
"Where is the Mo Dao Camp?" Zhan Xian shouted.
A somewhat familiar face, having slain two Li soldiers blocking his path, stepped forward to Zhan Xian. "Huo Xiao of the Mo Dao Battalion!"
"Can you break through the defense?" Zhan Xian asked.
Huo Xiao turned and glanced into the distance. "I can!"
"Okay, I'll cover you."
Anjun ceased his pursuit, and Lijun, now free from obstruction, retreated at full speed.
In an hour, a battle that ended inconclusively and even humiliatingly resulted in the loss of their king, and the crown prince, who had personally led the fight, was also seriously injured, his fate unknown.
Amidst the retreating Xili army, a shield-wielding soldier with a long-handled sword wedged himself in, blending into the ranks as he retreated to the sentry post. Several more shield-bearers followed closely behind under the command of their deputy.
Only after the troops had gone further did An Jun pretend to continue the attack, but he remained hesitant and did not advance an inch into the defensive line.
The sentry's firepower was drawn to the An army, so no one noticed that several An soldiers were mixed in with the retreating Li army.
Several giant shields formed an impenetrable wall of armor, forcibly pushing their way to the front of the sentry post.
They are breaking through a defensive line, and in doing so, they are creating a way out.
Inside the sentry post, the pursuing Li soldiers swarmed in.
Xie Chengnan was exhausted and had no time to worry about the approaching enemies and the arrows raining down on him.
He didn't know if an even more perilous and dangerous place awaited him ahead; he only knew he couldn't stop here.
The horses, seemingly driven mad, staggered and charged toward the sentry post.
The gate at the sentry post seemed to be open, letting in light. Xie Chengnan had already lost consciousness.
Because the Crown Prince of Xili wanted to stand with the Li army, he did not stay in the camp and thus escaped Xie Chengnan's assassination attempt. However, by a twist of fate, the person Xie Chengnan failed to kill will be dealt a fatal blow by Zhan Xian in a plot twist.
Although it failed to kill the Crown Prince of Xili, the arrow was extremely close to his heart.
News of the Crown Prince's critical illness and coma, and the death of the King of Xili, reached Liangzhou simultaneously. Both armies were in uproar.
The defenders of the city, unaware of the situation, were puzzled when they saw the Xili army suddenly withdraw. "They're retreating already? They're not fighting anymore? What's going on? The Xili army clearly had the upper hand. They could have attacked for another three days and the city would have fallen..."
"Bah! What nonsense are you spouting? Even if we attack for another thirty days, with us holding the line, this city won't fall! Who knows what kind of tricks they'll pull next! Just defend the city!"
Anjun dared not be careless until he confirmed that the Li army had withdrawn from Liangzhou territory and was heading south all the way back to the western Li border.
With the pressure suddenly eased, Gu Shuan knew that the time for a counterattack had come.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com