Zheng Quchi had lived in a peaceful and prosperous era for over twenty years, and this was the first time he had encountered an enemy attack.
Before she even had a chance to come up with a solution, she was dragged along by the people around her. The atmosphere of tension and terror was like boiling water under her feet, scalding her so that she couldn't stay still and had to take action.
But then a stray arrow flew through the crisscrossing heads and "whoosh" shot into the ground near her feet.
The foreman's eyes widened in fury: "These damned barbarians, they're so fast!"
Zheng Quchi felt a chill run through her body. Her heart was in her throat, and she felt so choked up that she could hardly breathe.
The soldier waved and ran, trembling and his teeth chattering: "Run up the mountain quickly! Don't stay in one place, spread out!"
There were more than a hundred stonemasons in the quarry. Their faces were ashen. They dropped their tools and ran frantically toward the rugged hillside.
They didn't choose open mountain roads or flat ground, firstly because it would be too easy to expose their position, and secondly because it would make them easy for barbarian cavalry to catch up.
Fuxian County is located in a remote border region, and many people have witnessed the brutality of the Ganyi barbarians. They control a large area of grassland in the western region for animal husbandry and are skilled in iron casting.
The Gan Yi barbarians are inherently greedy and cruel. Rumor has it that they also carry wolf genes, so every time they launch a large-scale raid, they like to bleed and behead the people of the Central Plains, showing their bloody and brutal side.
They would also hang the heads of commoners from Ye on their horses, wolf banners, and waists to boast about their victories.
Before Yuwen Sheng rose to fame in the war against the Seven Kingdoms, the Gan Yi barbarians practically treated Fu County and even the western part of Ye Kingdom as their own "sheep pen." Every autumn, when the harvest was plentiful, they would launch an invasion and hunt for prey.
Zheng Quchi followed them in their escape like a lost soul. People are always prone to imitating unfamiliar things, and she was no exception.
Having never experienced a mass exodus before, she instinctively followed others up the mountain. Along the way, her vision was blurry, but her ears were always sharp enough to hear all sorts of sounds.
There were heavy breathing sounds, the rustling of hurried footsteps, the restless anxiety of the people ahead, and the shouts of the soldiers dispersing and gathering the crowd...
Everyone was in a terrible state, including her.
People fleeing for their lives don't care about their appearance.
As she approached the halfway point of the mountain, her heart pounding in her chest. Finally, unable to contain herself any longer, she turned her head and looked north towards the direction where the city wall was being built, towards the quarry.
The place had long since degenerated into a scene of hell.
The laborers and craftsmen who couldn't escape were intercepted by the group of barbarians. There were only a few dozen of them, but they treated hundreds of people like cattle and sheep, chasing and driving them away. When they cried out in despair, they raised their knives and killed them.
They also set fire to the wooden planks erected under the city walls, intending to destroy the construction work that had been underway for the past two days.
Zheng Quchi had excellent eyesight; even from this distance, she could clearly see the nomadic barbarians they were talking about.
The barbarians were very tall, at least a head taller than the average height of the people in Ye.
They had long, messy hair that wasn't braided or tied up, but just wildly hanging over their shoulders. In particular, they were very hairy, and almost all of them had savage beards, making them look like wild men who ate raw meat and drank blood.
Indeed, as the government said, these barbarians were well-equipped, wearing scale armor, with sharp and lightweight iron scimitars, and even their horses were fine steeds with glossy hides.
Even though they were so far apart, the screams coming from below kept assaulting her eardrums.
She saw the barbarians cruelly and smilingly behead the Ye Kingdom craftsmen and laborers who tried to escape and rebel. The air seemed to be filled with a foul and fishy smell. The extremely nauseating scene shocked her.
"Run...run faster..."
Zheng Quchi couldn't help but grit his teeth and plead. Seeing the one-sided and merciless slaughter below, he realized that these barbarians only had a few dozen cavalrymen, but there were so many of them, yet not a single one of them had the courage to fight, to risk their lives, or to unite.
It was as if... they were terrified from the very beginning and never even considered the possibility of fighting back.
"Damn it, the barbarians aren't just using cavalry; another group is catching up. Don't stop, run!"
A loud shout came from a soldier who was standing on a high rock. As he looked down the mountain, he discovered the worst possible situation.
Zheng Quchi was startled and looked down at the foot of the mountain. He saw that there were dozens of barbarians, all of them archers. They were wearing leather coats and carrying arrows. They nocked their bows and shot at the people on the mountain.
Many were shot in the back, howled in pain, and rolled down, while the barbarians below laughed triumphantly.
Her fingertips dug into her flesh, her eyes were red, and the fear and panic in her heart were burned away by this resentment.
At that moment, an arrow shot towards her from behind. Zheng Quchi had exceptional dynamic vision, perhaps due to the results of her archery training since childhood in this life as "Sang Xuanqing". She caught the trajectory of the flying arrow and was about to dodge when a figure pounced on her and knocked her to the ground even faster.
Zheng Quchi looked up in surprise, only to meet a pair of familiar eyes.
"Autumn?"
She never expected it to be him.
Qiu's face was smeared with black oil, and his appearance and demeanor were completely different from before. No one knew where he had hidden himself for such a long time.
"Um."
Zheng Quchi's eyes gleamed brightly, like a burning flame amidst thorns: "Qiu! Did you bring a crossbow?"
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