At this point, Ye Xiang too had come closer and looked at Su Rong. Just like his wife, their thoughts seemed to be on the same page.
That day, when Zhou Gu had stealthily stormed into the Ye Xiang Residence to meet Ye Guixue, he hadn’t seen anyone. However, now looking at Su Rong, thinking about the widespread rumor of Zhou Gu’s double-handed sword, he let out a deep sigh.
His son wasn’t fortunate enough to win the heart of such a princess, but then again he was lucky– after all, he was saved by the princess today and thus, his life was spared.
Once life is preserved, the future can be planned. The future of Ye Guixue, the future of Ye Guiyan, and the future of the entire Ye Xiang Residence.
This was a huge favor. Did the Ye Xiang Residence have to pledge loyalty from now on?
Ye Xiang also bowed deeply. For so many years, he had never bowed so deeply before the Nanchu King. "Elder Ye Yu pays respects to the Princess."
Su Rong quickly let go of the Ye family’s mistress, and helped Ye Xiang up. She was skilled in martial arts, and with a minimal amount of effort, she easily supported Ye Xiang. "No need for such formalities, Master Ye Xiang."
Ye Xiang then straightened up, moved by the gesture. "If not for the Princess’s timely arrival, this mountain valley might have become the burial ground for my family."
Having let go of him, she said, "Upon entering the borders of Nanchu, we were informed about the Nangong Family sending troops to intercept and kill you and your family. We immediately mobilized some forces and hurriedly came here. I’m relieved that we made it in time."
Upon hearing these words, Ye Xiang carefully glanced at Su Rong. Indeed, her face seemed to faintly display exhaustion, and under her eyes, the dark circle was quite prominent. It was evident that she had rushed to their rescue. Although, she appeared neat and clean with a stark contrast to the blood-soaked battlefield around them, the difference in appearance between them made it difficult to see the hardships of her journey to rescue them.
Ye Xiang bowed again, "Great kindness of the Princess..."
"Well well, Ye Xiang, aren’t you feeling tired?", Su Rong hurriedly interrupted him, "Please, no more formalities, if you are not tired then I am."
Ye Xiang: "..."
The mistress of the Ye family suddenly laughed, "That’s enough, my dear husband, our family would always remember the grace of the princess towards us. Listen to the princess, stop with the formalities, didn’t you hear that she is exhausted from her journey to save us? Hurry up, let’s deal with the aftermath of the war, take a break, catch our breaths, we can slowly talk later."
Ye Xiang touched his forehead and laughed too, "Alright."
Because of this exchange, both sides became more relaxed. After exchanging pleasant trivial words, they started dealing with the aftermath of the war, cleaning up the battlefield, listing the wounded soldiers, providing medical treatment, and reorganizing the troops.
Upon the final count after the battle, from the one hundred thousand soldiers under Ye Guixue, twenty-one thousand were light injuries, fourteen thousand were heavily injured. Of the hundred thousand, only thirty-five thousand survived the fight.
The numbers were shocking, but had Zhou Gu not advised them to leave the royal capital and if Ye Guixue had not listened and Ye Xiang had not agreed to leave, once the royal departed from the capital, Nangong Family’s wrath would fall upon the Ye Xiang Residence. Perhaps, by now, the hundred thousand soldiers would be gone and the Ye Xiang Residence annihilated.
After all, the troops sent by Dawei Crown Prince, Yuan Zhao, and the commander, Han Yin, who led fifty thousand elite soldiers, were extremely formidable.
The Jinglu Troops led by Hen Zhong reported to have fifty thousand lightly injured and fifteen thousand heavily wounded. They had forcedly recruited sixty-five thousand soldiers.
Upon hearing these numbers, Fen Ling said to Su Rong, "Hey, sis, if you add our soldiers, it’s exactly one hundred thousand."
After giving him a glance, Su Rong, who had been exhausted all night to the point that his eyes could hardly stay open, said, "That means Nanchu has lost a hundred thousand soldiers in this civil war."
Fen Ling immediately became unhappy hearing this as these lost soldiers were supposed to be her sister’s inheritance, "Damn those Nangong’s traitors."
Waving her hand at him, Su Rong said, "Enough cursing, go rest! Set up the camp and take a day of rest before we set off again."
Fen Ling nodded and, half-asleep, returned to his tent.
With Fen Ling and Qin Ruo there, together with a few vice generals from the army taking charge, Su Rong did not need to worry about many things. She had slept for half the night and upon waking up this morning, she felt quite refreshed.
According to Lan Zhi’s report last night, while treating Ye Guixue’s wounds, due to the severity of his injuries, he fainted midway. Ye Guiyan too didn’t fare much better. He endured until the bandaging was done and then fell asleep too.
Assuming that Ye Guixue would have woken up by now, Su Rong decided to go and see him.
As she reached Ye Guixue’s tent, the soldiers on guard saluted her uniformly. She nodded and asked, "Has Second Young Master Ye woken up?"
"Responding to the princess, he has woken up and is currently talking with his father and mother." someone responded:" I’ll go and inform him now."
Su Rong nodded, saying, "I came to see him, go and ask if it’s convenient."
That soldier agreed and immediately left. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎
In a short while, Ye Xiang and his wife personally came out to welcome her. Mistress of Ye household smilingly said, "Guixue has just woken up. Fortunately, Miss Lan Zhi, who is by your side, is highly skilled in medicine, else the military doctors wouldn’t be able to treat his wounds."
Su Rong had already heard about this from Lan Zhi, "That’s good to hear. Has his bandages been changed?"
"Yes, it was just changed by a military doctor. He said it was a minor task and didn’t want to bother Miss Lan Zhi anymore," said the mistress of Ye household.
Su Rong nodded, and asked again, "How is the eldest son doing?"
"Guiyan is still unconscious. Despite being a few years older, his physical strength doesn’t compare to his younger brother," Ye’s mistress spoke in a lowered voice," At that time, if Guixue didn’t insist on having his bodyguards take Guiyan to escape, Guixue wouldn’t have been injured so severely. He forcefully ordered all his bodyguards to take his elder brother away. But, stubborn as Guiyan is, he believes that if a family has to die, they die together, so he even disregarded his daughter. When he saw that the bodyguards wanted to forcefully take him away, he held a sword against his own neck. This led to chaos, providing the enemy an opportunity to seriously injure them."
Su Rong was surprised to learn about this incident and admired the bonding between the brothers. According to the files of the prime minister’s residence, although the Ye Xiang Residence belonged to a high-ranking family, the entire family was harmonious. Ye Xiang didn’t have multiple wives or concubines but stayed with the Ye family’s mistress from beginning to end. This was quite rare and had indeed surprised Su Rong. The Ye family was a major clan in Nanchu and had a thriving population, but it still couldn’t match the Nangong family. It seemed like the Ye family had a lot of hopeless romantics which is why even when added together from youngest to oldest, within five degrees of kinship, there were only about a hundred people. More than half of which were dispersed. Therefore, the entirety of the Ye family can actually be represented by the Ye Xiang Residence. When leaving the capital, they only needed a few horse-drawn carriages. As a result, they didn’t appear scattered and possessed the ease of mobility, unlike the Nangong family. Within five degrees of kinship, the Nangong family could gather about a thousand people. Even though most of them were also dispersed, the small fraction that stayed in the capital still amounted to three or four times the population of the Ye Xiang Residence. So, in another sense, the influence of the Ye Xiang Residence couldn’t quite match that of the Nangong family due to the difference in population.
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