Chapter 387 Dejected
The Xiliang cavalry discovered Lin Kui around dawn.
An ordinary person would have died long ago from being seriously injured and frozen in the snow for so long. However, as a doctor, Lin Kui bandaged his wounds himself to stop the bleeding and miraculously survived until someone found him.
Even so, he was already dying. The soldiers wrapped him in several layers of blankets to keep him warm during transportation, and carefully escorted him to the vanguard camp of the Xiliang Army, where they found a doctor to treat him.
Lin Kui was unconscious until the sun rose and woke up. When he opened his eyes, the first person he saw was Shen Yuexi.
Shen Yuexi, dressed in a thick cotton-padded jacket, sat on a chair three feet away from him. The once reckless and weak girl, after enduring hardships, had become strong and calm, her bright eyes radiating confidence and intelligence.
Qiang Lin stood guard beside Shen Yuexi, staring at him with a frown, the scar on his face twitching slightly, as if he wanted to draw his sword and chop him in half at any time.
"Princess An...Princess An." Lin Kui greeted her weakly in a voice as soft as a mosquito.
Shen Yuexi was furious when she remembered that he had once poisoned Xiao Zhuo to death. However, she had a more important question for Lin Kui, so she suppressed her anger and said coldly, "Lin Kui, what's wrong with your injuries?"
Lin Kui forced a wry smile and said, "Your Majesty... was stabbed. The leg wound is not serious. Although the sword wound went through the body, judging by its location, it doesn't seem to have damaged any internal organs."
"You can't die," Shen Yuexi said, "Why would my brother hurt you? Aren't you his most trusted subordinate?"
Lin Kui turned to look outside the tent. When he saw the sunlight filtering through the gaps in the curtains, a look of horror crossed his face. He said, "It's dawn... Where's the Queen?"
As he spoke, he tried to struggle to get up, but the pain in his wound was unbearable and he couldn't help but groan loudly.
Shen Yuexi sighed and said, "If you don't want to die, don't move. Tell me what happened last night."
After rescuing Lin Kui in the early morning, the Xiliang cavalry rushed to the hill where Xiao Beiheng's troops were stationed. They found no one there, only tents, an extinguished fire, and sheep bones scattered on the ground. Xiao Beiheng and Su Mo were nowhere to be found. Unsure whether they had escaped or been captured by the Xirong, they had no choice but to bring Lin Kui back for questioning.
Lin Kui knew that he couldn't get up, so he lay back on the bed and slowly told Shen Yuexi what happened last night.
Shen Yuexi was horrified when she heard this. After Lin Kui finished speaking, she asked anxiously, "Did he catch up?"
Lin Kui shook his head and said, "I don't know. They ran far away. The rope behind the Empress has not been untied, but His Majesty is under the influence of drugs and has difficulty walking."
Shen Yuexi stood up and said to Qiang Lin, "Can you find Su Mo?"
Qiang Lin said, "I'll go look for it right away."
Before the two of them could leave, Lin Kui raised his hand to stop them and whispered, "Don't look for them anymore. We'll know the result soon."
Shen Yuexi turned around and asked, "What do you mean?"
"King Doma's deadline is daybreak. If the Queen isn't delivered by daybreak, King Doma will withdraw his troops." Lin Kui looked at the sunlight filtering through the cracks in the tent. "What is King Doma doing?"
Qiang Lin went out of the tent to inquire personally, and returned a short while later, his face solemnly saying:
"Princess An, scouts say King Duoma has dispatched 50,000 troops, and they're heading our way. Leading them is... none other than Xiao Beiheng. The Queen of Xiliang has already led the Black Cavalry to meet them in battle."
After hearing this, Lin Kui groaned repeatedly, pounded his fist on the bed, and said, "It's over, it's over."
Shen Yuexi slumped down in a chair, muttering to herself, "He really gave his sister-in-law to King Doma. He really did that."
"Princess An, go and save the Empress!" Lin Kui cried as he struggled to his feet. "You can kill me or chop me up as you please, but go and save the Empress, go!"
Shen Yuexi asked the sergeant to pull the agitated Lin Kui back to the bed and said to him, "Calm down. Su Mo is my sister-in-law, and I'm more anxious than you. But if we don't defeat my brother first, we can't save him."
There is no point in being anxious. They cannot go to find King Doma before defeating the Xirong army led by Xiao Beiheng.
She left the weeping Lin Kui behind and called out to a general, "Sister Mei has already gone to the front lines?"
The general said, "Princess An, after the Queen and the Military Advisor learned of Xiao Beiheng's attack, they led 5,000 Black Cavalry and 5,000 Crossbowmen directly to engage in battle. Before leaving, the Queen specifically instructed us not to disturb you, so we didn't inform you."
"Where is the Tiger Crouching Cannon?" Shen Yuexi looked around the entire camp and did not see any trace of the Tiger Crouching Cannon.
The general said, "Princess, the Tiger Crouching Cannon is moving slowly and has been escorted by the rear army. It will arrive at noon tomorrow at the earliest."
Shen Yuexi thought of the Black Cavalry's invincibility, and with her sister Shen Lan on board, they shouldn't be outmatched by Xiao Beiheng. She returned to the tent and said to Lin Kui, "You take good care of your injuries. We'll do our best to rescue Su Mo."
She originally hated Lin Kui's past, but when she saw Lin Kui made such a great sacrifice to protect Su Mo, she let go of the past.
"Princess An," Lin Kui stopped her as she was about to leave. "Since you have spared my life, I wish to repay you. Please send paper and pen. I will write a letter and have it delivered to the governor of Anzhou, Su."
Shen Yuexi asked, "Are you talking about Su Mo's father, Su Han?"
Lin Kui said, "That's right. If you write a letter to Su Taishou, he won't believe it, but I can. As long as you give the letter to Su Taishou, he will stop fighting with Prince An. This will be my way of repaying the favor."
Shen Yuexi thought, if a letter could prevent the deaths of thousands of soldiers, that would be perfect. She asked the sergeant to bring paper and pen, and Lin Kui endured the pain and wrote a letter. The content of the letter was that Xiao Beiheng had done something that was outrageous to both humans and gods, and advised Su Han to stop being an enemy of Xiao Zhuo.
The messenger took the letter and left. Lin Kui then said to Shen Yuexi, "I'll leave the Empress' care to Princess An."
Shen Yuexi was worried about Su Mo and wanted to lead her army to support her, but there were only two thousand soldiers left in the camp. Together with Qiang Lin's five thousand Western Rong soldiers, if she left any further, there would be no one to guard the camp, so she had to return to her own tent.
After lunch, he called the soldiers to ask about the battle situation at the front.
The sergeant said happily, "The scouts sent back by the Queen said that Xiao Beiheng dared not engage the Black Cavalry. When the Black Cavalry pursued him, Xiao Beiheng retreated. He has been defeated twice in a row."
Shen Yuexi felt relieved after hearing this. She thought to herself that the Black Cavalry was indeed invincible, and her two sisters should at least be able to remain undefeated. When the five thousand rear guard troops arrived at noon tomorrow, delivering the Tiger Crouching Cannon, she would have the entire army break camp and march forward to meet up with Mei Dai's army.
At two o'clock in the afternoon, she was dozing off in bed. Just as she was half asleep, she was suddenly awakened by the shouting, neighing, and clattering of horses' hooves outside the tent.
She thought it was an enemy attack, so she quickly got up and walked to the door of the tent, just in time to meet Qiang Lin coming over.
"Why is it so noisy outside?" Shen Yuexi asked.
Qiang Lin said, "Princess An, the Queen of Xiliang was defeated and has retreated to the main camp."
Shen Yuexi looked at the messy soldiers in the camp, puzzled, and asked, "Lost?"
In the distance, Mei Dai and Shen Lan were walking hurriedly towards them. Mei Dai's originally fair face was now blackened, her hair was messy, and she was holding an iron mask in her hand. Her body was still straight, but her face was full of frustration, like a phoenix turning into a chicken.
Chen Lan followed beside her, also looking furious, and explained something to Mei Dai while walking sideways.
Shen Yuexi rarely saw her two sisters in such a state of distress, so she quickly stepped forward and asked, "Sister Mei, is the battle not going well?"
Mei Dai stopped and pouted for a rare time and said, "I fell into the trap and was fooled by Xiao Beiheng. The Black Cavalry is gone." After saying this without thinking, she went into the general's tent first.
Shen Yuexi turned to Shen Lan again: "What happened to my sister?"
Chen Lan's face flushed and paled for a while, and after enduring for a long time, she said, "I was careless and was deceived by Xiao Beiheng."
The two of them had been confident in leading an army of 10,000 to fight Xiao Beiheng. They had witnessed the might of the Black Cavalry with their own eyes at the top of Leshan City.
After meeting Xiao Beiheng, he sent the Western Rong cavalry to fight, and they also sent the Black Cavalry to fight. Unexpectedly, Xiao Beiheng's cavalry did not fight, but led the Black Cavalry in a circle. The Black Cavalry could not catch up, so Shen Lan hurriedly called them back.
When the two sides fought again, Xiao Beiheng led the black cavalry in circles again, which made Chen Lan very angry.
The third time, Xiao Beiheng finally stopped beating around the bush and ordered his cavalry to engage the black cavalry. The black cavalry quickly overwhelmed the Xirong cavalry, forcing them to flee in defeat. Having been tricked twice, Chen Lan, impatient, ordered the black cavalry to pursue them relentlessly.
"The enemy cavalry ran across a frozen lake, and they all crossed it smoothly," Chen Lan lowered his head like a child who had made a mistake. "Our black cavalry crushed the ice, and the entire lake surface collapsed. Only a few hundred people escaped."
Shen Yuexi was stunned for a moment, her mind replaying the tragic scene of the Black Cavalry falling into the water. In such a cold winter, falling into the water while wearing such heavy armor, no matter whether one could swim or not, there was no chance of survival.
She and Shen Lan entered the general's tent and saw Mei Dai still sitting there frowning and sulking. She quickly advised, "Sister Mei, victory and defeat are common in the military. Don't take it too seriously."
Chen Lan knelt in front of Mei Dai in shame and said, "Queen, this is all my fault. I started a war with Xiao Beiheng without even investigating the surrounding terrain. Please punish me according to military law."
Mei Dai waved her hand and said, "Military Advisor, don't say anything. I'm just angry with myself. I always remind myself to act cautiously and think before I act, but I still can't do it. I even ruined such an elite cavalry."
Seeing that one of her two sisters was blaming herself and the other was kneeling on the ground begging for punishment, Shen Yuexi was at a loss and had to comfort them one by one with gentle words.
Mei Dai said, "Sister, you don't know. I'm worried about what to do if the enemy gets the Black Light Armor and uses it to attack us?"
Chen Lan said, "Queen, the lake water is freezing cold. The enemy can't salvage it. They have to drain the entire lake."
The three of them were in a commotion when Geng Hong ran into the tent and said, "Queen, the Western Rong army has marched towards our camp and is setting up camp in a depression five miles away."
Mei Dai asked, "How many soldiers do we have left?"
Geng Hong said, "Two thousand infantry, four thousand archers. The King of Qianglin has five thousand cavalry, a total of eleven thousand men. The rear army of five thousand is escorting the Tiger Crouching Cannon. They will arrive tomorrow at noon."
Shen Yuexi pulled Shen Lan up and said, "Sisters, now is not the time to be dejected. We must quickly strengthen the defense of the camp."
Mei Dai said, "Sister, you are right. The Xirong army is about to attack. Military Advisor, go and arrange for defense immediately."
Shen Lan and Geng Hong left the tent to arrange the camp's defenses. Mei Dai said to Shen Yuexi, "Sister, we rely on the Black Cavalry, but there are only a few hundred of them left, so they are completely useless. The Tiger Crouching Cannons haven't arrived yet, so we have to survive today."
Shen Yuexi asked, "Sister Mei, the enemy is camped in a depression, right?"
"yes."
Shen Yuexi said, "Don't worry, sister. I already have a plan to defeat the enemy. But before that, I must go to the lake tonight to pay tribute to the soldiers. May their heroic spirits bless us to successfully defeat the enemy."
Mei Dai saw Shen Yuexi talking in a mysterious way, so she stood up and said, "If you want to go, I'll go with you."
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